Description
In 1990, Dent claimed in the pages of Accounting,
Organizations and Society that research at the interface
between accounting and strategy is undeveloped.
What is the nature of this interface today? It is
opportune to ask this question now because in the
intervening years, business, government and the notfor-
profit sectors have seen significant transformations.
Updated Call for Papers
Strategising and Accounting
A Workshop Sponsored by Accounting, Organizations and Society,
Imperial College London and the University of New South Wales
London
7–8th May 2009
In 1990, Dent claimed in the pages of Accounting,
Organizations and Society that research at the inter-
face between accounting and strategy is undeveloped.
What is the nature of this interface today? It is
opportune to ask this question now because in the
intervening years, business, government and the not-
for-profit sectors have seen significant transforma-
tions. The boundaries between these sectors for the
organization of economic activities have become
blurred as we operate in a so-called 24/7, ‘borderless’
world of global competition, mass customisation,
and networked communities. Indeed, writers speak of
us being in a new ‘post-industrial age’ that is char-
acterised by distinctive complexities and tendencies.
In accounting, these tendencies have been associated
with the emergence of ‘strategic’ management
accounting, a changing concept of the role of CFOs,
a dissatisfaction with traditional financial measures
of corporate value and good governance and the
search for new metrics that seek the value of intan-
gibles and the non-financial. Just as these tendencies
have been observed and analysed in the accounting
literature, so also in strategy. In 1999 in the pages of
the Sloan Management Review, Eisenhardt put the
provocative question has strategy changed? and an-
swered clearly in the affirmative.
Alongside these changes in practice, both fields
have undertaken theoretical developments in tune
with shifts in social theory more generally. In both
academic disciplines we see emergent attempts to
understand both strategy and accounting as prac-
tical, enacted social activities. There is now an
impetus to study accounting and strategy not as
nouns (that is, ostensively) but performatively, as
enacted practice, that, on the one hand is bound by
spatial and temporal routines but, on the other, is
also characterised by active translation in different
locales. Questions are being asked about how con-
cepts such as ‘strategic planning’ or ‘strategy maps’
emerge in domains that hitherto have been less ex-
posed to such ideas? How is ‘strategy’ crafted and
enacted in highly dispersed firms that might span 100
countries and multiple continents? Can strategy
or strategising be ‘controlled’ or does it inevitably
drift?
These are just a few examples of research ques-
tions that are being developed largely independently
at present in the fields of accounting and strategy.
Yet the picture emerging suggests that processes of
accounting are centrally bound up with these activi-
ties of strategy-making and translation. A case can be
made that the two are intertwined at a fundamental
level. Such a perspective adds a further degree of
complexity to any attempt to understand the shape
and trajectory of the interface between strategy,
strategising and accounting in the light of work
ongoing since Dent first posed the question. Nearly
20 years later, is the interface between accounting
and strategy more developed? What does develop-
ment mean?
This workshop seeks to draw together researchers
interested in pursuing these questions. Papers might
have either a theoretical or empirical focus. Illustra-
tive topics include:
• The implication of accounting practices and rou-
tines in the crafting and monitoring of strategic
themes.
• The travel and translation of ideas about doing
and controlling strategy in different locales.
doi:10.1016/j.aos.2008.05.001
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 681–682
www.elsevier.com/locate/aos
• The practice of strategic doing and enactment in
dispersed parts of global firms, professional
associations, government agencies, etc.
• The connections between strategy making and
controlling via accounting routines embedded in
machines and information systems.
The workshop will be held at the Tanaka Business
School of Imperial College London, starting lunch-
time on Thursday 8th May 2009 through until
lunchtime Friday 9th May. All papers submitted are
subject to the normal review process of Accounting,
Organizations and Society. Offers of papers must be
submitted by email before 30th September 2008 to
both of the following:
Prof. Chris Chapman
[email protected]
and
Prof. Wai Fong Chua
[email protected]
Authors will be notified of their acceptance to the
workshop by 31st January 2009. At this time dis-
cussants will be sought who will also be given the
opportunity to write up their comments for publi-
cation as a part of the resulting special issue, subject
to the normal review process.
682 Announcement/Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 681–682
doc_299699230.pdf
In 1990, Dent claimed in the pages of Accounting,
Organizations and Society that research at the interface
between accounting and strategy is undeveloped.
What is the nature of this interface today? It is
opportune to ask this question now because in the
intervening years, business, government and the notfor-
profit sectors have seen significant transformations.
Updated Call for Papers
Strategising and Accounting
A Workshop Sponsored by Accounting, Organizations and Society,
Imperial College London and the University of New South Wales
London
7–8th May 2009
In 1990, Dent claimed in the pages of Accounting,
Organizations and Society that research at the inter-
face between accounting and strategy is undeveloped.
What is the nature of this interface today? It is
opportune to ask this question now because in the
intervening years, business, government and the not-
for-profit sectors have seen significant transforma-
tions. The boundaries between these sectors for the
organization of economic activities have become
blurred as we operate in a so-called 24/7, ‘borderless’
world of global competition, mass customisation,
and networked communities. Indeed, writers speak of
us being in a new ‘post-industrial age’ that is char-
acterised by distinctive complexities and tendencies.
In accounting, these tendencies have been associated
with the emergence of ‘strategic’ management
accounting, a changing concept of the role of CFOs,
a dissatisfaction with traditional financial measures
of corporate value and good governance and the
search for new metrics that seek the value of intan-
gibles and the non-financial. Just as these tendencies
have been observed and analysed in the accounting
literature, so also in strategy. In 1999 in the pages of
the Sloan Management Review, Eisenhardt put the
provocative question has strategy changed? and an-
swered clearly in the affirmative.
Alongside these changes in practice, both fields
have undertaken theoretical developments in tune
with shifts in social theory more generally. In both
academic disciplines we see emergent attempts to
understand both strategy and accounting as prac-
tical, enacted social activities. There is now an
impetus to study accounting and strategy not as
nouns (that is, ostensively) but performatively, as
enacted practice, that, on the one hand is bound by
spatial and temporal routines but, on the other, is
also characterised by active translation in different
locales. Questions are being asked about how con-
cepts such as ‘strategic planning’ or ‘strategy maps’
emerge in domains that hitherto have been less ex-
posed to such ideas? How is ‘strategy’ crafted and
enacted in highly dispersed firms that might span 100
countries and multiple continents? Can strategy
or strategising be ‘controlled’ or does it inevitably
drift?
These are just a few examples of research ques-
tions that are being developed largely independently
at present in the fields of accounting and strategy.
Yet the picture emerging suggests that processes of
accounting are centrally bound up with these activi-
ties of strategy-making and translation. A case can be
made that the two are intertwined at a fundamental
level. Such a perspective adds a further degree of
complexity to any attempt to understand the shape
and trajectory of the interface between strategy,
strategising and accounting in the light of work
ongoing since Dent first posed the question. Nearly
20 years later, is the interface between accounting
and strategy more developed? What does develop-
ment mean?
This workshop seeks to draw together researchers
interested in pursuing these questions. Papers might
have either a theoretical or empirical focus. Illustra-
tive topics include:
• The implication of accounting practices and rou-
tines in the crafting and monitoring of strategic
themes.
• The travel and translation of ideas about doing
and controlling strategy in different locales.
doi:10.1016/j.aos.2008.05.001
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 681–682
www.elsevier.com/locate/aos
• The practice of strategic doing and enactment in
dispersed parts of global firms, professional
associations, government agencies, etc.
• The connections between strategy making and
controlling via accounting routines embedded in
machines and information systems.
The workshop will be held at the Tanaka Business
School of Imperial College London, starting lunch-
time on Thursday 8th May 2009 through until
lunchtime Friday 9th May. All papers submitted are
subject to the normal review process of Accounting,
Organizations and Society. Offers of papers must be
submitted by email before 30th September 2008 to
both of the following:
Prof. Chris Chapman
[email protected]
and
Prof. Wai Fong Chua
[email protected]
Authors will be notified of their acceptance to the
workshop by 31st January 2009. At this time dis-
cussants will be sought who will also be given the
opportunity to write up their comments for publi-
cation as a part of the resulting special issue, subject
to the normal review process.
682 Announcement/Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 681–682
doc_299699230.pdf